Nusa Penida is a gorgeous tropical island situated East of the Bali island and only takes a 30-minute ferry ride to reach it. If you’re looking to get away from the tourist run Bali and experience beautiful beaches, this is the place to head to.
Atuh Beach, Nusa Penida
First Morning: Due to traveling with late and grumpy risers….We never leave at the time I had planned. When it comes to traveling I’m a total type A. So, we were late to catch our scheduled ferry. We headed to Sanur Port from Canggu and it took us about an hour. This is where you should head to catch the ferry to Nusa Penida or any of the other surrounding islands. We quickly bought our tickets and made the 9:30 A.M. ferry. FYI I suggest wearing sandals as you have to walk in the water before you can hop on the ferry.
Lucky for us, I had already found a snorkel company to explore the island with. Dreaming about Penida was amazing!(Give them a message on FB messenger) I had been keeping in contact with them because we weren’t sure we were going to make it for the scheduled time. They didn’t have any other customers that day so they waited for us and picked us up at the Nusa Penida Port and took us to their office so we could drop off our bags before we headed to the boat.
Looking for Manta Rays
Our first stop was to the find the Manta Rays….October wasn’t the best time to see them and we didn’t even find one so we will just have to try again another time. Our Captain took us to 3 other beautiful snorkeling spots. They definitely made up for not seeing any Manta Rays. This was the best snorkeling I have ever experienced. There was all kinds of different colorful fish and beautiful coral. I did not want to get out of the water! The captain let us know we were in no rush and could snorkel as long as we wanted.
This was a great experience! I highly recommend doing this tour even if you’re not around for Manta Ray season. It was nice to be out on the boat for half a day and getting into the beautiful blue waters to find the rainbow-colored fish. At the time of writing, the trip only cost $23 each! That’s a steal.
The beautiful Atuh Beach
Afternoon: Once the boat trip was finished we rented some scooters and headed to our bungalow. We took a little break before deciding to go to Atuh Beach to catch the sunset. Boy was this a thrilling ride! Nusa Penida is notorious for having unpaved roads and everyone told us to be careful. Living in Asia for the last few years I didn’t think the roads would be a match for this expert driver but…..I was completely wrong. My hands hurt so bad from holding tightly on to the brakes almost the entire way there. We finally made it without getting hurt and with enough sunlight left.
The adventure wasn’t over yet! The steps to get down to the teach were claustrophobic and it’s hard not let pictures of your self dropping down to the ground from popping into your head. If you’re the adventurous type, go down to this beach! Once we were done with all the climbing and could sit and take in the view, we knew we would do it again no questions asked. This location is probably the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life and I’m a beach expert so I would know 😉
Look at these steps!
Nighttime: We carefully drove back towards our bungalow and once we knew we were close we found a nice cliff side restaurant to have dinner at. The seafood is delicious and quite cheap, so take advantage of that if it’s something you fancy. After dinner, we all sat outside the balcony and looked up at the stars. It’s not often that you get to see stars anymore. We called it an early night as we had a lot more ground to cover the next day.
Second Day
Little balcony at our bungalow
Morning: I woke up before anyone else so I went out and sat on the balcony watching the sun rise and the boats coming in to shore. I was just wishing that every morning could be like this one. Unfortunately, the plans for the day changed. I felt the need to count the money I had in my wallet and realized I was missing $2,000! I was in complete shock and disbelief. How could this have happened? I told Mark and my sister what happened while sobbing uncontrollably. I know crying doesn’t help but what am I meant to do when I find out the money I worked hard for had been stolen. My sister checked her wallet and found she was missing $500. A little backstory, the only reason I had this large amount of cash on me was because my sister was heading home and was going to deposit it into my savings. I only needed it to last 5 days without anything happening to it and I failed. We know exactly who took it and called all the police stations on the main Bali island and just got laughed at. So, to say the least justice was not served and am still in shock about the whole situation.
Lunch Time: I tried to pick myself up, to not let this ruin our amazing trip so far. We headed towards sone clear blue waters to splash in because salt water heals all. We had lunch and obviously a beer or two to calm me down and rehash our plans for the day. Remember how I said the roads here were bad? Well, it was a lot more of that. Our first stop was to Kelingking Beach, the popular Instagram rock formation that looks a little like t-rex. After a few wrong turns, we made it! I stared in amazement of the beauty of this place. We were starting to make our way down, when everyone we saw just looked like death. I asked a woman how she would rate it out of 10 and she gave me an 11 and said it took her 2 hours just to get down. I took her advice and just admired this place from above.
Viewpoint at Broken Beach
Afternoon: Next, we went to Broken Beach. It is another rock formation with a view of the ocean. Not as impressive as Kelingking beach but still worth the visit. We raced the sun all the way to Crystal beach so we could catch another beautiful sunset. This was a beautiful drive. My heart felt a lot better after seeing cute little calfs playing with their mother with gigantic palm trees in the background. We sat in the sand at Crystal Beach and watched the sun go down in dramatic style for my dramatic day.
The next day we slept in a little bit before returning the scooters and getting on a ferry back to Bali for our last night in Seminyak.
Nusa Penida was incredibly beautiful and wish I would have had some more time to spend there. If you’re short on time like I was, 2 days is just about perfect to see everything you want. I’m really glad we chose Nusa Penida as the beaches were far more beautiful and the nature was out of this world. Not to say that there aren’t nice places in Bali, because there are plenty but it’s nice to get away from the crowds and feel like you’ve “found” a secret little beach.
Places worth visiting that I wasn’t able to make:
Angel’s Billabong – A natural swimming pool
Peguganyan Waterfall- It’s not much of a waterfall but the views are totally worth it
Banah Cliff Point – Beautiful place for pictures
Mola Mola fish- If you like diving you can try to find the giant Mola Mola fish that peruses the area.
Pandan Beach- Nice and small beach but don’t think it’s great for swimming.
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The Gypsy Escapades 